2026 Witham Hall and Timmy James Memorial Grands Prix: report and results
Anna Morris took a commanding solo victory at the Witham Hall Grand Prix on Sunday 3 May, while Jack Rootkin-Gray edged out Will Truelove (JAKROO Handsling) in a two-up sprint to win the Timmy James Memorial Grand Prix
Anna Morris continued her commanding spring with a solo victory at the Witham Hall Grand Prix, going clear mid-race and stretching her advantage to over three minutes by the line.
In the afternoon, Jack Rootkin-Gray edged out Will Truelove (JAKROO Handsling) in a two-up sprint to win the Timmy James Memorial Grand Prix.
The Witham Hall Grand Prix was decided in the middle of the race, when individual pursuit world champion Anna Morris went clear and the bunch could not respond. By the next lap she was alone; by the bell she had two minutes; by the line, 3:15.
The opening laps had been brisk and unsettled. “The first lap was very fast, with lots of attacks and breaks trying to go but all were shut down,” runner-up Evie Smith (Redchilli Bikes O’Shea Racing) told The British Continental. For a while, the race followed the familiar rhythm of a National B: probing moves, short-lived gaps, a bunch unwilling to allow anything too threatening to form.
Then Morris went.
“Anna attacked solo and the bunch tried to work but wasn’t getting anywhere,” Smith said. By the next lap Morris was alone. By the bell, she had two minutes. By the finish, the margin was 3:15. There was no late hesitation, no tactical recalibration, no sign that the race might be brought back together. Once Morris had established the gap, the contest for victory was effectively over.
The more open race was behind. A lap after Morris had made her move, two riders pressed on up the climb through Witham-on-the-Hill, opening a gap on the bunch. Smith, feeling the race beginning to form in front of her, jumped across.
The race for 2nd took shape a lap later. “Two riders pushed up the hill through Witham-on-the-Hill, forming a gap to the bunch. Feeling strong, I bridged over, and a group formed of about nine. The group worked really well together, pushing on with a chainy,” Smith recalls.
The chase group came to the line together. “I was hoping for a reduced bunch sprint going into the race,” Smith explains. “I positioned well up the climb before sending it in the last few hundred metres.” Smith took second, with Seren Thomas (camsmajaco) third.
Morris’s form this spring has had no real comparators on domestic roads. Already a winner at the Peak 2 Day and Capernwray, with 5th at the East Cleveland Classic for good measure, she arrived in Lincolnshire as the favourite — and rode like one. Her road programme may be selective, but when she appears, the pattern is becoming familiar.
Her solo move had not been a planned one. “It was my first time on the Witham Hall circuit, and due to its fast roads I expected the race would likely come down to a sprint and it would be difficult to break away on,” she told The British Continental. After a couple of moves of her own that hadn’t stuck, a gap opened on the finishing road with three laps to go and she went with it. “I really wasn’t sure it would stick as the bunch could move fast on those roads, but I just tried to give it a good go and luckily the effort paid off today.”
She arrives at Lincoln next Sunday as one of the favourites for Michaelgate. “I’m sure there’ll be some tough competition. I’m looking forward to an exciting race with an atmosphere that never fails to impress.”
Timmy James Memorial
The Timmy James Memorial, run by Bourne Wheelers in tribute to club member Tim James and in aid of Young Lives vs Cancer, has been won by Sam Watson, Alex Richardson and a two-time winner in James McKay since its first staging in 2021. This year’s edition was decided on the half-kilometre drag to the line, after eight laps of attacks, regroupings and shifting alliances had left five riders to fight for the win.
The race went away early. Three riders attacked on the first passage of the start-finish, and Josh Housley (RideRevolution Coaching CT) bridged across with a group in tow. By the end of the opening lap, around 20 riders had gone clear — an unusually large early break, the consequence, as Housley sees it, of riders following the move and others sitting up. The first hour averaged 48km/h, and from 50 kilometres in, the bunch never got within three minutes.
The break did not lack for chasers behind, but it lacked organisation against. “A number of further moves were attempted, but all of them got pulled back by what was effectively a very negative bunch, not looking to miss out,” Clay Davies (RideRevolution Coaching CT) recalled.
The shape of the race was set, but its dynamics were not. With around five laps to go, Housley attacked alone over a climb on the back edge of the course. William Perrett (DAS Richardsons) bridged, and the two worked together until a chase of around six caught them on the climb. The lead group swelled back to 20. The following lap Housley went again. This time it was Will Truelove (JAKROO Handsling) who came across, and the two stayed clear longer before being caught — but the chase that brought them back numbered only six.
That left a lead group of around six with three laps to race: Housley, Truelove and Perrett, plus Gabriel Dellar (RideRevolution Coaching CT), James Sawyers (Cycling Sheffield), and the returning WorldTour rider Jack Rootkin-Gray, who had spent two seasons at EF Education–EasyPost before returning to the British scene this year.
The closing laps were attacks “thick and fast”, in Housley’s words. Truelove’s read of the exchanges with Rootkin-Gray is more specific: Rootkin-Gray attacked immediately, and Truelove went with him. “I went over the top of him, then he went over the top of me,” Truelove told The British Continental. They tried it four or five times, then sat up to recover.
By the bell, RideRevolution Coaching CT had two riders — Housley and Dellar — in a lead group whose pursuers were closing to within twenty seconds. Housley took the front to keep the pace up; Dellar came over and tried to drag the group towards the line, but a headwind blunted the move. Housley hit the front himself over the climb to the finish, leading the sprint out, and was passed in the final hundred metres by Truelove and Rootkin-Gray. “If the line was at the top of the hill, I’d have crossed it first,” Housley said.
Truelove and Rootkin-Gray were locked together over the final 200 metres, neither giving way; the photo split them by millimetres in Rootkin-Gray’s favour. Housley took third, Perrett fourth, Dellar fifth, with Sawyers sixth at ten seconds.
It is Rootkin-Gray’s first victory following his return to British racing after two seasons in the WorldTour with EF Education–EasyPost – a marker that the form is genuinely there, not just the miles, as he builds towards whatever comes next.
For Truelove, second will sting in a particular way: in an interview with The British Continental recently, the 24-year-old named the pattern he was racing to break — a season of podiums and near-misses, no road race win since the PB Performance Espoirs in 2023, and a clear-eyed acknowledgement that what he was missing was “the final bit — the bit that gets you into the winning position.” Today he had it down to millimetres, and again came up just short. He took the result with grace. “Second to a guy like Jack with his WorldTour pedigree, it’s not too bad,” he said.
For Housley and Dellar, third and fifth represented a strong day for RideRevolution Coaching CT — two riders in the front five of a race they had helped to shape from the gun.
Anna Morris continued her commanding spring with a solo victory at the Witham Hall Grand Prix, going clear mid-race and stretching her advantage to over three minutes by the line.
In the afternoon, Jack Rootkin-Gray edged out Will Truelove (JAKROO Handsling) in a two-up sprint to win the Timmy James Memorial Grand Prix.
Featured image: Sarah Jane Swinscoe
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Reports
Witham Hall Grand Prix
The Witham Hall Grand Prix was decided in the middle of the race, when individual pursuit world champion Anna Morris went clear and the bunch could not respond. By the next lap she was alone; by the bell she had two minutes; by the line, 3:15.
The opening laps had been brisk and unsettled. “The first lap was very fast, with lots of attacks and breaks trying to go but all were shut down,” runner-up Evie Smith (Redchilli Bikes O’Shea Racing) told The British Continental. For a while, the race followed the familiar rhythm of a National B: probing moves, short-lived gaps, a bunch unwilling to allow anything too threatening to form.
Then Morris went.
“Anna attacked solo and the bunch tried to work but wasn’t getting anywhere,” Smith said. By the next lap Morris was alone. By the bell, she had two minutes. By the finish, the margin was 3:15. There was no late hesitation, no tactical recalibration, no sign that the race might be brought back together. Once Morris had established the gap, the contest for victory was effectively over.
The more open race was behind. A lap after Morris had made her move, two riders pressed on up the climb through Witham-on-the-Hill, opening a gap on the bunch. Smith, feeling the race beginning to form in front of her, jumped across.
The race for 2nd took shape a lap later. “Two riders pushed up the hill through Witham-on-the-Hill, forming a gap to the bunch. Feeling strong, I bridged over, and a group formed of about nine. The group worked really well together, pushing on with a chainy,” Smith recalls.
The chase group came to the line together. “I was hoping for a reduced bunch sprint going into the race,” Smith explains. “I positioned well up the climb before sending it in the last few hundred metres.” Smith took second, with Seren Thomas (camsmajaco) third.
Morris’s form this spring has had no real comparators on domestic roads. Already a winner at the Peak 2 Day and Capernwray, with 5th at the East Cleveland Classic for good measure, she arrived in Lincolnshire as the favourite — and rode like one. Her road programme may be selective, but when she appears, the pattern is becoming familiar.
Her solo move had not been a planned one. “It was my first time on the Witham Hall circuit, and due to its fast roads I expected the race would likely come down to a sprint and it would be difficult to break away on,” she told The British Continental. After a couple of moves of her own that hadn’t stuck, a gap opened on the finishing road with three laps to go and she went with it. “I really wasn’t sure it would stick as the bunch could move fast on those roads, but I just tried to give it a good go and luckily the effort paid off today.”
She arrives at Lincoln next Sunday as one of the favourites for Michaelgate. “I’m sure there’ll be some tough competition. I’m looking forward to an exciting race with an atmosphere that never fails to impress.”
Timmy James Memorial
The Timmy James Memorial, run by Bourne Wheelers in tribute to club member Tim James and in aid of Young Lives vs Cancer, has been won by Sam Watson, Alex Richardson and a two-time winner in James McKay since its first staging in 2021. This year’s edition was decided on the half-kilometre drag to the line, after eight laps of attacks, regroupings and shifting alliances had left five riders to fight for the win.
The race went away early. Three riders attacked on the first passage of the start-finish, and Josh Housley (RideRevolution Coaching CT) bridged across with a group in tow. By the end of the opening lap, around 20 riders had gone clear — an unusually large early break, the consequence, as Housley sees it, of riders following the move and others sitting up. The first hour averaged 48km/h, and from 50 kilometres in, the bunch never got within three minutes.
The break did not lack for chasers behind, but it lacked organisation against. “A number of further moves were attempted, but all of them got pulled back by what was effectively a very negative bunch, not looking to miss out,” Clay Davies (RideRevolution Coaching CT) recalled.
The shape of the race was set, but its dynamics were not. With around five laps to go, Housley attacked alone over a climb on the back edge of the course. William Perrett (DAS Richardsons) bridged, and the two worked together until a chase of around six caught them on the climb. The lead group swelled back to 20. The following lap Housley went again. This time it was Will Truelove (JAKROO Handsling) who came across, and the two stayed clear longer before being caught — but the chase that brought them back numbered only six.
That left a lead group of around six with three laps to race: Housley, Truelove and Perrett, plus Gabriel Dellar (RideRevolution Coaching CT), James Sawyers (Cycling Sheffield), and the returning WorldTour rider Jack Rootkin-Gray, who had spent two seasons at EF Education–EasyPost before returning to the British scene this year.
The closing laps were attacks “thick and fast”, in Housley’s words. Truelove’s read of the exchanges with Rootkin-Gray is more specific: Rootkin-Gray attacked immediately, and Truelove went with him. “I went over the top of him, then he went over the top of me,” Truelove told The British Continental. They tried it four or five times, then sat up to recover.
By the bell, RideRevolution Coaching CT had two riders — Housley and Dellar — in a lead group whose pursuers were closing to within twenty seconds. Housley took the front to keep the pace up; Dellar came over and tried to drag the group towards the line, but a headwind blunted the move. Housley hit the front himself over the climb to the finish, leading the sprint out, and was passed in the final hundred metres by Truelove and Rootkin-Gray. “If the line was at the top of the hill, I’d have crossed it first,” Housley said.
Truelove and Rootkin-Gray were locked together over the final 200 metres, neither giving way; the photo split them by millimetres in Rootkin-Gray’s favour. Housley took third, Perrett fourth, Dellar fifth, with Sawyers sixth at ten seconds.
It is Rootkin-Gray’s first victory following his return to British racing after two seasons in the WorldTour with EF Education–EasyPost – a marker that the form is genuinely there, not just the miles, as he builds towards whatever comes next.
For Truelove, second will sting in a particular way: in an interview with The British Continental recently, the 24-year-old named the pattern he was racing to break — a season of podiums and near-misses, no road race win since the PB Performance Espoirs in 2023, and a clear-eyed acknowledgement that what he was missing was “the final bit — the bit that gets you into the winning position.” Today he had it down to millimetres, and again came up just short. He took the result with grace. “Second to a guy like Jack with his WorldTour pedigree, it’s not too bad,” he said.
For Housley and Dellar, third and fifth represented a strong day for RideRevolution Coaching CT — two riders in the front five of a race they had helped to shape from the gun.
Results
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